Apple no threat to BP devices business: Omron Corp CEO Junta Tsujinaga

The Kyoto-based Omron Corporation president and Chief Executive officer Junta Tsujinaga told Fortune India that he does not see Apple’s iWatch as threat to the Japanese company’s blood pressure (BP) monitoring devices business.

“If we provide the BP monitor, clinical authorisation is done in each country. Apple doesn’t have like this certification. So, this is quite different,” said Tsujinaga, who spoke at the inauguration of Omron Healthcare’s first BP devices manufacturing plant in India, at Gummidipoondi on the outskirts of Chennai.

On the fact that many customers trust their Apple readings anyway, Tsujinaga said the two products serve different purposes. The iWatch, he argued, is “just monitoring the health conditions. If a user sees high or irregular readings, the data from an Omron device can be shown to a doctor. The medical [fraternity] can use our data,” he said.

Healthcare is a substantial business for Omron, which is valued at $6.55 billion.

iWatch vs Omron

The challenge of iWatch to Omron is real.

For the year ended March 31, 2026, Omron reported a consolidated net sales of about $5.1 billion, of which the healthcare business (Omron Healthcare Co Pvt Ltd) clocked $967 million (19%), with blood pressure monitors making up for 72% of the revenue.

Last year, Omron Healthcare crossed a major global milestone with cumulative worldwide sales of its blood pressure monitor surpassing 400 million, since the product's maiden launch in 1973. In comparison, iWatch, launched in 2015, sold 33.3 million units in 2025. In fact, Apple's cumulative revenue from the iWatch surpassed $100 billion for the first time in the second quarter of 2025, according to Counterpoint Research.

But Tsujinaga believes the gap between a wellness gadget and an iWatch comes down to clinical validation. Interestingly, when Apple needed to prove its hypertension feature worked, it measured the watch against an Omron monitor.

According to Apple’s validation documentation dated September 2025, the study of 2,229 adults compared the watch’s results with average blood pressure readings taken twice a day for 30 days on Omron’s Evolv wireless upper arm BP monitor. According to Omron’s documentation, its BP monitors are clinically validated against standards set by agencies such as the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation and the European Society of Hypertension.

Apple Inc did, however, receive the US Food and Drug Administration clearance in September 2025 for a hypertension notification feature on the iWatch. The feature does not measure systolic and diastolic numbers but analyses optical heart sensor data over 30-day periods and notifies users if it detects signs of hypertension. The FDA has said the notifications are meant to guide users to further testing and are not a diagnostic tool.

Divestment of healthcare business?

On whether the company would look at a disinvestment of the healthcare business and purely focus on the industrial automation (IAB) business, Tsujinaga said: “Healthcare is one of our core businesses. But its percentage of the business and its position are quite different from our industrial automation business. Our purpose is to create a better society. When we find social needs and social issues in the market, we will keep taking on the challenge of creating new solutions and new value to solve them.”

Omron recently acquired OnLogic, the U.S.-based industrial computer manufacturer, for $675 million, aimed at expanding its automation business to encompass industrial computing systems. “The main purpose [for the acquisition] is to gather data from the shop floor. In the future, we will use IPCs with AI. That is the dramatic change in factory automation, and it is our ambition,” said Tsujinaga.

On whether investors are pushing for a hiving off of the healthcare business, Tsujinaga was non-committal.

In the past, Omron has spun off its businesses related to healthcare (2003), automotive electronics components (2010), and social systems, solutions, and service (2011). In fact, this July, Omron hived off the device and module (DMB) solutions business into a separate company (Aratas Corporation) and sold it to The Carlyle Group for $50 million, retaining just 5% stake in the business.

During the Q4 FY26 earnings call, Tsujinaga told analysts that the greatest theme toward 2030 is to gain the strength to win in market competition, mainly in industrial automation. “The share transfer of DMB is part of this effort. The funds generated through portfolio reform and existing businesses will basically be directed toward focused businesses to drive higher revenue growth and profit expansion. Therefore, in terms of capital allocation, we will prioritise M&A in IAB above all else,” the CEO told analysts.